Relationship between lymphopenia and age and gender observed in patients receiving fingolimod treatment

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between lymphopenia and age and gender factors observed in Multiple Sclerosis patients who were followed-up with Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis and were treated with fingolimod for the first time in the MS outpatient clinic of Neurology of Medical Faculty at Department Hatay Mustafa Kemal University. Material and Method: Our study is a retrospective study and 63 women, 63 men, a total of 126 Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis patients registered in the polyclinic database of our hospital, age, lymphocyte counts were recorded before and after using fingolimod and statistically evaluated. Results: In our study, it was found that the mean lymphocyte counts (745,10 ± 681,63/μl ) examined at the earliest 1 month after starting oral finglimod (0,5mg/day) treatment in Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis patients were lower than the mean lymphocyte counts before starting any treatment (p <0.001). Patients below 0.80 x 10 ^ 3 / μl were evaluated as lymphopenia. There was no correlation between lymphopenia and age factor in Multiple Sclerosis patients receiving fingolimod treatment (p> 0.05). The relationship between lymphopenia and gender was evaluated and lymphopenia was observed in 54 of 63 female patients and 43 of 63 male patients. Female patients were found to have a higher risk of lymphopenia (p <0.001). However, no statistically significant difference was found between lymphocyte averages after treatment of male and female patients with lymphopenia. Conclusions: In our study, it was observed that the risk of fingolimod-induced lymphopenia was higher in women, and the age factor did not pose a risk in accordance with the literature. Keywords: Fingolimod, relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis, lymph